John McCusker, The Times-PicayuneSean Hunter, left, former director of aviation at Louis Armstrong International Airport, arrives at the federal courthouse in New Orleans Wednesday with his attorney, Arthur Lemann IV.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. also fined Hunter $3,000 and ordered him to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons on June 27. That agency will determine where he serves his sentence. After his sentence is complete, Hunter will serve three years of probation.

Hunter pleaded guilty in January to a single count of obstruction of justice for his role in the bogus insurance claim.

Moments before his sentencing, Hunter told the judge he offered his "sincerest apologies" for his conduct.

"It's with great humility today I ask for the court's mercy ... and the community's forgiveness," Hunter said, his voice quavering.

While Hunter and his attorney, Arthur Lemann IV, asked Duval for "probation and mercy," prosecutors argued that Hunter was a public official who broke the law by using his position at the airport to hide his wife's car in an airport parking garage.

Duval agreed.

"Public trust is paramount," Duval said in handing down his decision. "He abused it."

Hunter and his wife, Shauna, were charged together in a nine-count indictment that says Shauna Hunter filed a false insurance claim on her BMW 525i after Hurricane Katrina and collected on it.

Shauna Hunter claimed the car had been ruined by floodwaters, according to prosecutors, when in fact it was undamaged, and the couple continued to drive it. They were not yet married at the time.

Shauna Hunter's insurer, AAA, paid off the car's $55,000 note and sent her a $3,443 check, according to the indictment.

Authorities began their investigation after the car was spotted twice running red lights in New Orleans. The tickets were sent to AAA, which was listed as the owner of the car.

The Hunters tried to hide the car in a garage at the airport, but a New Orleans Police Department detective found it there.

Sean Hunter resigned from his airport post, which paid $181,000 annually, in September 2009, after news of the federal investigation broke.

The Hunters were initially charged in August 2010 in a one-count bill of information. When they backed out of a plea agreement, prosecutors returned with a nine-count indictment.

Shauna Hunter still faces charges in the case and is charged in a separate two-count indictment in federal court in Houston that contains almost identical allegations.

Arthur "Buddy" Lemann III, who also represents the Hunters, has said Shauna Hunter intends to plead guilty in the Houston case, which will result in the charges against her in New Orleans being dropped.

Shauna Hunter is scheduled for a rearraignment, or change of plea hearing, on Friday, records show.